Reducing your backup archive size

File selection versus archive size

The size reported by your file selection (the total that appears on the Backup tab of the CrashPlan app) and the size of your CrashPlan archive can be different. The reason they may differ is due to your frequency and version settings.

CrashPlan tracks multiple versions of each file, and it backs up changes over time. Retaining a large number of file versions increases the size of your backup archive. To decrease the size of your backup archive, update your version retention settings to retain fewer versions of your files and deselect files from your backup selection.

View archive size

To see the size of your archive on CrashPlan Central:1. Open the CrashPlan desktop application.2. Select Destinations from the options on the left-hand side.3. Select Cloud.4. Select CrashPlan Central.5. Your archive size appears after Space used:

Steps

Considerations

Deselecting a file from your backup set is not the same as deleting a file from your computer:

Deleted files: If you delete a file, CrashPlan keeps the file backed up according to your settings at Settings > Backup > Frequency and versions > Keep Deleted Files.

Deselecting files: CrashPlan permanently removes all versions of files that you deselect from your backup selection. After the file is removed from the backup archive, you can't restore the file.

Removing files

Go to Backup and click Change.

Navigate to the folder and files that you want to include or exclude (you can also choose external drives that are displayed in this list), then:

Clear the marked box next to the folders you want to exclude from back up.

Select an empty box to include it.

A solid square (Windows), or a minus sign (OS X), indicates that a subfolder within this folder is selected for backup and is being monitored for changes.

A check mark indicates that this folder is selected for backup.

Click Save.

Wait for the file verification scan to complete.

Go to Destinations.

Select the destination type that corresponds to the location of the archive you want reduced (Friend, Computers, Folder or Cloud).